The following motion was moved by Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin on Tuesday, 10 June 2014:That Dáil Éireann: acknowledges the scandal that occurred at the Bon Secours Sisters institution in Tuam, County Galway, where almost 800 children died while in the ‘care’ of a religious order, in a State regulated institution, and were placed in a mass unmarked grave over a period of five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s; notes the Government’s intention to give early consideration on the best course of action to take into investigating the deaths of these children and the appalling manner of their interment; recognises that the abusive practices which occurred at the Bon Secours Sisters mother and baby ‘care’ home were not unique to that one institution and were replicated in similar institutions across the State including what occurred at Bethany Home; and calls on the Government to: — immediately initiate a fully independent judicial inquiry, with terms of reference agreed by the Houses of the Oireachtas, into this latest shameful episode involving a religious order and the failure of the State in its duty of care to its most vulnerable and defenceless citizens; the inquiry to consider the so-called ‘care’ regime in place, the infant mortality rates and the burial of children in unmarked graves at all mother and baby homes in the State; and — set a date for the establishment of this inquiry before the Dáil summer recess and all of the Report’s findings be published.

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